He lowered himself slowly through the lower doors. He grasped the rim of the opening with both hands and pushed himself down into the wrecked docking platform. The fires of the resulting explosion from their missiles had already been extinguished, as all of the air was sucked out of the large room. He saw a few clustered pieces of destroyed shuttles that were pressed around the Brisbane above him. There were only a few corpses around the charred remains of the platform.
“Over there,” Cass directed.
Part of the far wall became highlighted on his visor. The destroyed room was mostly dark and Cass did her best to filter what light remained through the armor’s helmet. Burke pushed himself away from his ship and down onto the floor below them. He felt his feet latch onto the floor with each step, magnetized one at a time and allowing him to move quickly despite the lack of gravity in the room. A few windows had managed to remain intact around the edges of the room, displaying other rooms that still held onto their artificial gravity and oxygen from the rest of the ship. He didn’t see any people yet.
He made his way across the room, often trudging around large chunks of shuttles that had apparently fused themselves to the floor after the explosion. When he reached the far wall, there were less debris and the floor was mostly clear. Cass continued to direct him to the door a few paces to his left. The door was sealed closed. There was a panel next to it that had survived the blast.
“I need a manual connection with it,” she said.
He put his back to the wall and stretched out his right hand to place it on the panel. He knew from experience what was about to happen and he kept himself tight against the wall. The visor in front of his eyes flashed as Cass connected to the larger ship’s systems. She cycled through an outline of the entire vessel. It looked identical to the other one they had boarded months earlier; however, Cass noticed something he didn’t.
“There are some heavy modifications in the middle of the ship,” she said.
“I don’t see them.”
“They’re hidden quite well. I’ll have to go deeper into the network to find out. I’ll investigate while I try to get access to their cameras. You can let go now. I have a link.”
Burke lowered his hand and pressed it against the wall. He shifted his feet and found that they were already stuck to the floor.
“Get ready,” she said.
The door opened. Something immediately slammed into it and was stuck against the small opening. Air roared out of the interior corridor as it was lost into space. The door opened wider and the object was revealed to be a chair. He heard screams as several of the ship’s guards came hurtling through the door after the chair, still shrieking before they were sucked out into the vacuum that had claimed the platform. Their screams soon stopped as all of the air left their lungs. He had seen people die from exposure to space many times before. There were worse ways to die, he thought, but not many.
Remnants of the fires were pulled through the corridor as the air around them was lost. They puttered out as the corridor lost all of its pressure. Burke waited another moment before he stepped inside, pulling himself through the next area that had once again lost gravity. The door closed behind him, prompted by Cass, and the ship’s outline once again filled his view.
“It’s going to take me a few minutes to convince the ship’s computer that it’s safe to restore life support here,” she explained.
The corridor was brighter than the docking platform, having not yet lost power. Burke saw movement as he passed one of the connecting corridors. He quickly twisted his left arm and brought the shield up to protect his face, mere seconds before a wave of bullets crashed into the shield. At the end of the hall, there was a mercenary that had been intelligent enough to put on a protective suit after the ship sustained its hits. The suit was made of fabric and protected him only from exposure. Burke kept his shield up, not willing to risk any shot that might puncture his aegis. Even a small fissure could cause major problems.
Cass released his feet from the floor and he pressed forward. The mercenary held his handgun in his right hand, firing as he moved forward. He shifted his legs and free hand on the walls around him, turning freely with the lack of gravity and making it difficult for Burke to focus. He reached for the handgun in the hip compartment of his armor, not the rifle at his back, and aimed carefully from behind the shield. He twisted the barrier away and fired in the next instant, sending two bullets into the mercenary that cut through the suit. He saw the fabric deflate around the man and a rush of air and blood squirt out from the bullet holes he made. He aimed a third shot at the man’s head. A mercenary that defended slavers or not, he couldn’t bear to watch someone’s blood unravel out of them like that while they were alive.
He continued down the corridor and passed the dead man. He holstered the handgun again. Cass asked him to stop at one of the doors and he did so, holding himself near the floor. When gravity was restored to the area, he fell only a short way and felt his knees buckle when he met the floor. His left leg ached a little but it was tolerable.
“Have you located Kristen?” he asked.
“I’m working on it,” she answered.
The edges of the visor’s field of view filled with dozens of small partitions. Each one of them was a different camera from somewhere in the ship. Cass eliminated them faster than Burke could process, limiting them to those with someone visible and those from near their location. There were multiple rooms with imprisoned slaves, most with locked rooms rather than cages. There were less guards than Burke expected, especially given how many slaves were present on the ship.
“Found her,” Cass said.
The visor split to show Kristen. Isaac was standing next to her. The room they were in looked distinctly different than the rest of the ship. It was carpeted, for one, and lacked the industrial practicality of the walls around where Burke currently stood. There were no guards in the room with them. He frowned at that.
“How do we get there?” he asked.
Cass displayed an overview on the map and then an additional waypoint over the visor. He moved through the door next to them. The room was full of stacked crates but had no guards or slaves. He walked quickly along the guiding line that Cass set for him. He saw on the map that there were two more rooms and a large hallway between him and Kristen’s position. He looked at the camera feed in the corner of his eye. They were simply standing there, the girl bound but standing next to him, waiting.
“I don’t like this,” Burke said.
“I’m investigating still. Keep moving forward,” Cass said.
The next room was full of caged slaves. There was only a single guard, who Burke dispatched quickly. He saw that the next room was where the bulk of the ship’s armed forces had met and set up a barricade, anticipating him to move through there and to the middle of the ship. He tried his best to ignore the cries of slaves around him, knowing that he had to disable the rest of the vessel before he could help them. Still, when he reached the door, he turned around to look back at them.
“Can you seal the other doors here? I don’t want anyone getting to these people.”
“Done,” Cass said.
“Thank you.”
He took a breath before he pressed his hand against the next door. He triggered the shield and pressed the door open slightly. Then he grabbed his rifle, holding it in only his right hand, before he pushed off into the next room. He blocked the doorway at first, making sure no stray bullets could get at the room behind him until Cass could close it. There were too many guards for him to count and he fired blindly back at them, suppressing them more than attempting to hit any of the mercenaries.
Minor warnings flashed over the screen. When the door was sealed, he dived quickly into the room and behind cover. He reloaded his rifle. Over twenty target markers popped up around him, painted by Cass through the room’s camera. He could see the faint outlines of the markers through the crates around him. He planned out how he would move ahead of tim
e, portioning out the bullets in the fresh magazine for as many of the guards as he could.
He whipped over the crate. More than half of the guards opened fire immediately. He saw a grenade arcing through the air toward him and he readied his left arm. He swatted at the explosive with his shield, knocking it aside and across the room. It detonated in mid air, sending a group of the mercenaries to the floor in a hot, blinding flash. Burke adjusted his plan accordingly, sweeping the room with his rifle and squeezing off two rounds for each target that he passed.
He ducked behind the crate when he fired the last bullet in the magazine. He reloaded quickly out of sight, not taking any additional shots. The mercenaries were using higher quality armor piercing shots than the ones on Frey. Cass was doing her best to minimize the damage but he had to be careful. He waited a moment before he extended his rifle above his head, looking through the visor’s link with the scope that Cass expanded to fill the screen. He moved it slowly and carefully, lining up a shot without getting out of cover. The crosshairs rested on the head of one of the guards. He squeezed the trigger and watched the woman fall dead to the floor.
Another grenade landed next to him. He didn’t notice it soon enough to deflect it. He held his shield up to the blast and watched the explosion press against the barrier as it held, spraying flames away from his armor. He felt something in his rifle snap from the blast. He tried to fire off a single round and nothing happened. He growled and threw the weapon to the floor.
“How many are left?” he asked.
“Eight.”
He grabbed for the gun at his hip as he twisted over the crate. He landed two shots before he broke out into a run across the room. A third grenade landed at his feet and he ran right passed it, stopping only when he neared the opposite wall. He raised both his gun and shield, pressing the barrier near the barrel of the gun to protect it while he lined up each shot. He thought he had missed at least one guard as he made a final check around the room. Cass confirmed that all of them were either dead or gravely injured, left reeling on the floor.
“Burke, he’s moving her,” she said quickly.
The visor changed to show the other room. Isaac was pulling Kristen by her hands. Her feet scraped along the floor as he dragged her out of view of the camera. Burke marched across the room and to the next doorway. He stepped into the corridor and slowed his steps only for a moment. There were windows on either side of him, showing a vast empty space near the middle of the ship. He couldn’t see very far through the darkness and he couldn’t understand what he was seeing.
“You need to hurry,” Cass said. “I know what this is. Trust me.”
Burke pressed his feet off the floor into a run. He reloaded his handgun when he reached the next doorway. He expected it to be locked but it slid open when he placed his armored hand onto it. He stepped inside and the doors snapped shut behind him.
“Welcome Burke Monrow!” Isaac’s voice filled the room through unseen speakers.
Burke took a few steps inside. The area reminded him of the last time he encountered the man, on his moon base years earlier. The desk near the far wall looked identical to one he had used before. There was a similar tall monitor above it. Isaac’s face was on the display. An uncertain smile played over his mouth. His left cheek was red and swollen. There were a few dried crusty pieces of blood under his eye.
“You remembered me after all,” Burke responded clearly.
Isaac looked confused for a moment. He nodded then, only once.
“This feels familiar, doesn’t it?” Isaac said.
“Keep him talking,” Cass whispered.
Burke looked around the room and only then did he understand. He saw another connecting door to the same ship Isaac had escaped with last time. Burke knew it would be locked. The part of the map that Cass had not understood was the smaller ship built into the larger one. A tremor ran through the floor as part of the ship shifted around them. He knew Isaac was preparing to launch away.
“This time will be different,” Burke said.
“You’ll die, like you should have last time,” Isaac replied.
The man closed his eyes and inhaled deeply through his nose. He let the breath out through his mouth. The breath came out uneven at first, as if he couldn’t keep himself steady. When he opened his eyes, he looked more calm.
“So much planning, so much worry,” Isaac said.
Another tremor ran through the ship. Something was coming apart from above them, opening for the smaller vessel.
“Oh, I nearly forgot!” Isaac said. “You were so very dramatic last time. I thought I’d return the favor.”
A timer displayed at the bottom of the screen. The man grinned, showing his teeth. The lights in room changed to a low red. The timer began to countdown from four minutes.
Burke released the faceplate on his helmet. He wanted Isaac to see the death glare in his eyes. He kept the rest of his features expressionless, trying to trust in Cass.
“Let me revel a bit,” Isaac continued. “It’s not every day you get to reclaim your old life, after all. My ship will launch soon, destroying everything around it. Not even your armor can protect you from that. Oh, that armor changed your life didn’t it? You thought you were too good for your partner and went off on your own for a few years. You came back to kill him, so sure that you were better working solo. Look where that got you.”
Burke was disgusted by how gleeful the man was over details he was getting wrong. He kept staring up at the screen. He’d let the man talk, only answering when he needed to.
“Seriously though,” Isaac said, his face suddenly becoming solemn. “I want you to know how much this means to me. In return, I promise that I won’t kill the girl. Kristen, right? That’s her name? She won’t die, Burke. You have my word. I’ll keep her alive. For years. With me. For years. Suffering.”
“Still a coward then,” Burke spat.
“It was you that made me accept my true nature. But look at what that let me accomplish,” Isaac smirked. “The famous Burke Monrow, dead by the hands of the coward Isaac Paxton. Quite the plan, don’t you think?”
“It must have taken you years,” Burke said.
“Parts of it,” Isaac replied. The timer below him was under two minutes.
“Ready,” Cass whispered.
“You seemingly thought of everything,” Burke said.
“I left nothing out. You’re helpless.”
“You got one thing wrong though,” Burke said.
Isaac narrowed his eyes slightly. His head raised away from the screen.
“What would that be?” he said slowly.
“I don’t work alone.”
The timer abruptly stopped. The lights reverted back to their normal color. Cass appeared on the main screen above the desk. She smiled.
“Nice to meet you,” she said sweetly.
The door across the room popped open and Burke sprinted toward it. He could hear Isaac roaring out in the ship above him, both through the display’s speakers and the ship’s interior. He lunged up the stairs, three at a time, and shouldered his way into the main room of the small ship. Isaac was screaming at the screen in front of him that still showed Cass’s face. Kristen was behind him, still on her feet.
“Isaac,” Burke shouted.
The man turned to him. His eyes were wide and horrified, on the verge of tears. He trembled as he looked at Burke, all of his fears suddenly coming true at once.
“I told you that I’d kill you,” Burke said.
He raised the gun and fired in one motion. The bullet punctured through Isaac’s forehead, above his left eye. He slumped down onto the floor. He was dead instantly.
* * *
Cass took full control of both ships. She commanded the few remaining guards to surrender or be killed. The Brisbane docked properly with the vessel and Burke escorted Kristen inside before he turned back to clear the ship out of the stubborn mercenaries who refused to give up. Those who did surrender, he let li
ve. He caged them up after he released the slaves and let them decide what do with them. Then, when he was confident the ship was stable, Cass contacted the Tali system’s local authorities anonymously about the disabled slaver vessel. The Brisbane was gone before they arrived.
“Are you okay?” Burke asked Kristen, not for the first time, when they entered the spare bedroom on the ship.
“I’m fine,” she answered. “I think I hurt him more than he did me. You boarded soon after I was on the ship. Thank you, Burke.”
He nodded at her and then looked around the room. He had already taken off his armor. His leg hurt but he refused to leave her alone just yet.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t have lied to you.”
“Maybe,” she answered. “Maybe not. I still worried that I might be taken again. It worked out fine in the end.”
“You’re going easy on me,” he said with a small smile.
“You just saved me. Again. I think you’ve earned it.”
He saw a lot of Geoff in his daughter. She looked at him with the same appraising eyes, genuinely thinking about what she said before she said it. The thought of the man made him suddenly guilty that he had ignored his previous messages. He walked over to the screen in the room and turned it on.
“Cass,” he said out loud.
“Burke?” she answered.
“Can you get Geoff on the screen in here? I’m sure he’ll want to talk to his daughter.”
He turned to face the girl. Her wrists were bruised from when they were bound. He guessed her legs were in a similar state.
“Your father was injured,” he began. “He’s been in the hospital for the last few days. He’s mostly recovered. I just wanted you to be prepared.”
She nodded once, her mouth a tight line. The screen changed as an incoming call was received. Burke walked out of the room before the call completed. He wanted to give the two of them some privacy.
The Bounty Hunter: Soldier's Wrath Page 8